Carp History and Facts

Carp Facts

Carp History

The Carp full name ‘Cyprinus Carpio’ is related the Goldfish species, Common carp are native to Asia and Eastern Europe, Koi (nishikigoi) in Japanese, is an ornamental variety that originated in China but became known to the Western world through Japan.

Variants include the mirror carp, with large mirror like scales (linear mirror - scaleless except for a row of large scales that run along its sides, originating in Germany ), and the leather carp (virtually unscaled except near dorsal fin).

The European original Carp originated in the River Danube and were brought to the UK by the Romans where Monks reared them for food. In fact the Carp is still a delicacy and forms a part of a traditional Christmas eve dish called a ’shachlo of carp’ In Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Poland.

Carp soon showed themselves to be notoriously hard to catch after their introduction and was thought by some to be un-catchable. Slowly anglers developed their knowledge and techniques, culminating in the birth of modern ledgering techniques pioneered by the likes of the legendary Richard Walker.

These anglers had none of the specialised tackle available today, and had to make their own, nets from hession sacks and bicycle wheels, specialised split cane rods and eventually the first electronic bite alarm.

During the mid-20th century, carp became increasingly popular with anglers and in 1952 Richard Walker netted Britain’s first 40lb fish.

Richard Walker (1918 – 1985)

One of the first to apply scientific thought to angling, Walker wrote many books on the sport. He also wrote for the angling press, most notably for the “Angling Times”. He held the record for carp in the UK for 30 years with a fish of 44 pounds caught at Redmire pool in Herefordshire.